12th Street Rag/ words by Euday L. Bowman

Lyrics:First verseIn a certain city, where the girls are cute and pretty, they have a raggy jazzy jazztime tune. When you hear that syncopated Jazz creeaated melody you could dance all morning night and noon, When the slide trombone and moaning saxophone begin to play, It will make you sad, ‘twill make you glad Oh! Boy, What Joy, Burn my clothes for I'm in Heaven, Wish I had a million womn, Soloman in all his glory, could have told another story, Were he but living here today, With his thousand wives ore more, a Jazz-Band on some Egypt shore, he could dance the night and day away. I will tell you how they dance That tantalizing 12th Street Rag.ChorusFirst you slide and then you glide, then shimmie for a while; To the left then to the right ""Lame Duck"" ""Get over Sal"" Watch your step then Pirouette, Fox Trot, then squeeze your pal Over you comes stealing such funny feeling ‘till you feel your senses reeling, tantalizing, hypnotizing, mesmerizing strain, I can't get enough of it please play it o’er again; I could dance forever to this refrain, To that 12th Street, Oh you 12th Street Rag. First you slide and then you glide, then shimmie for a while; To the left then to the right “Lame Duck” “Get over Sal” Watch your step then Pirouette, Fox Trot, then squeeze your pal Over you comes stealing such funny feeling ‘till you feel your senses reeling, tantalizing, hypnotizing, mesmerizing strain, I can’t get enough of it please play it o’er again; I could dance forever to this refrain, To that 12th Street, Oh you 12th Street Rag.
Second verseJazztime music is the rage, this is a syncopated age, ev’rybody loves a jazztime tune. For the music captivating, sets your heart a palpitating you just can’t make your feet behave, Ancients youths of sixty four, do steps they never did before, Father time is mad, no one grows old. Oh! Boy, What Joy, Put your loving arms around me, Say Babe, ain’t you glad you found me, Cleopatra on the Nile, could vamp right in the latest style, If she’d only known this ragtime tune; Old King Cole a merry soul, called for his pipe and then his bowl, and the first jazzband his fiddlers three, Play, oh play me while I dance That tantalizing 12th Street Rag.

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The derogatory terms, images, and ideas that appear in some of this sheet music are not condoned by the University of Mississippi. They do represent the attitudes of a number of Americans at the times the songs were published. As such, it is hoped that the sheet music in this collection can aid students of music, history, and other disciplines to better understand popular American music and racial stereotypes from the 19th- and early 20th-centuries. Read the introduction for further information to use when contextualizing this item: http://130.74.92.141/cdm4/intro_harris.php